Web Hosting Talk : Web Hosting Main Forums : Hosting Security and Technology : shelf versus rack servers

[Prestahost]

Hi there!

I have been running a small webhosting business for a couple of years with minimal unschedulled downtime ... untill this week. There were two downtimes in one day, both caused by a mallfunction of a power supplay on a somebody's else server. The full shelf of machines was down. Twice.

I suppose that switching to rack mounted servers may help. I cannot buy the full rack, but better general quality of rack servers == better neighborhood => lower chance of such accidents.

Do rack servers really improve the general quality of hosting? What about other problems specific to racks, e.g. overheating?

Thanks

[PCS-Chris]

A properly built rackmount server wont overheat, and hopefully you choose to colo in a datacenter who has built out their racks properly.

We have a number of Core i7 systems in 1U rackmount cases, many people will tell you these CPU's run too hot for 1U systems but we've had no issues at all.

Rackmount server hardware is usually higher quality but its not always the case. Many people use cheap parts inside rackmount chassis.

[SustainableVM]

Core i7's generally run really cool, especially the second gen i7's (Can't say that about the new 3rd gen ones, they run significantly hotter).

[Cookiesowns]

Originally Posted by FedoraIT

Core i7's generally run really cool, especially the second gen i7's (Can't say that about the new 3rd gen ones, they run significantly hotter).

Actually.. Apples to apples comparison, they don't really run that much hotter. Only when you start to scale them up for OverClocking do they run hot.

People believe it's due to Intel cheaping out and using normal TIM instead of solder for the IHS.

[VectorVPS]

Rackmount servers will often have redundant hot-swappable power supplies. When one fails, you can swap out the bad PSU without any downtime.

[ramnet]

Originally Posted by Prestahost

There were two downtimes in one day, both caused by a mallfunction of a power supplay on a somebody's else server. The full shelf of machines was down. Twice.

Erm....a properly designed datacenter should never experience a power outage as the result of one customer's server mucking up.

Putting each customer on their own cheap $5 fused power strip would have prevented the breaker serving the entire shelf from tripping.....

[Prestahost]

Originally Posted by ramnet

Erm....a properly designed datacenter should never experience a power outage as the result of one customer's server mucking up.

Putting each customer on their own cheap $5 fused power strip would have prevented the breaker serving the entire shelf from tripping.....

they said:
servers are supplied by a APC PDU with a single 32A
fuse. In a case of accident, the fuse goes out and thus the whole PDU.

The only precaution possible is to use 2 power supplies per server and 2 different power branches.
------
Is this a proper design? I am still considering using the same datacenter for the rack servers I am going to buy..

[WHC - Travis]

Rack server. Hands down a better investment. Saves space, etc.

[mugo]

A tech bring a coke into the server room or something?? They shouldn't allow enough servers to pull 80% on the 32A protection, using max calculations (all servers booting and spinning up HDD, for instance). Servers "settle down" after booting, and draw less amps. This usually bring in a sense of "false optimizm" to the techs that they can load up more server (if it didn't pop the circuit, we must have enough juice....).

But, if you load up the servers on one PDU, and something happens where a few are rebooting, rebuilding arrays, or other energy chomping tasks, you stand the chance of it popping the circuit/fuse.

[suhailc]

FYI:

Tower servers are designed for use in office environments where there is generally an ambient temperature and not a lot of other equipment next to them which can result in overheating. They usually exhaust hot air from the rear but sometimes from the front. You'll generally find little or no design for how cold air is taken in due to this. Blasting air con at shelves of tower servers would not have much use in cooling them down if the cold air can't get in to keep the parts inside cool.

Rackmount servers are designed for use in racks, where the traditional datacenter design is that of hot/cold aisle and they usually have well designed cold air intakes on the front and exhausts on the rear.

And I know some large DCs which use masses of tower servers remove the external case covers to keep them cool.

[sbradk]

This topic is disturbing. You really should consider hosting your servers in a better facility.